Lower Decks

In ‘How I Got These Scars’ #30, I wrote about the ten ‘Deep Space Nine’ writers who comprised the backbone and vision for the Star Trek series that is widely considered, if not the most popular, to be the best of the five live action TV projects. In this special series, I’m going to explore the individual contributions of those writers, which continues with the guy whose franchise career began during the first season of ‘The Next Generation,’ Hans Beimler. But don’t hold that against him!

Beimler contributed eight episodes over the course of three seasons to TNG, most notably “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” which he worked on with Ira Steven Behr and Ronald D. Moore, making it a kind of prototype of the collaboration that would form, for him, during DS9’s second season. As the elder statesman of the creative team, Beimler brought a lot of experience, but he seemed most comfortable working in conjunction or with someone else and their ideas. He was the glow, as it were, that brought it all together, and became increasingly indispensable in making it all happen, eventually becoming Behr’s closest partner as architect of the series.

2×15 “Paradise” (w/Jeff King, Richard Manning, Jim Trombetta & James Crocker)
When he finally made it to the series, Beimler wasted no time in working on this story, a terrific example of his ability to raise the stakes of the drama. While it isn’t particularly a fan favorite, Sisko’s battle of the wills with an anti-technology colonist has long been one of mine. Incidentally, this is the only DS9 episode he works on with frequent TNG collaborator Richard Manning.

4×9 “The Sword of Kahless” (w/Richard Danus)
Beimler next appeared over a season later (I can imagine the strings Behr must have pulled to integrate his friend into the project), bringing back original Klingon Kor and creating for him a complex plot that tightens the bonds between Worf and Dax, not to mention the series itself, which at this point he was still new to.

4×14 “Return to Grace” (w/Tom Benko)
Another odd turn saw Beimler transform Dukat into a sympathetic as well as heroic figure, which the Cardassian villain was hardly known for, no matter how hard he tried at times.

4×20 “Shattered Mirror” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
The historic first DS9 pairing of Beimler and Behr, which would become more permanent when Robert Hewitt Wolfe would depart a season later, working on Behr’s story of the Mirror Jennifer and her effect on the Sisko clan.

4×25 “Body Parts” (w/Louis P. Desantis & Robert J. Bolivar)
This is probably how Beimler really won the respect of Behr, because it’s arguably one of the best Ferengi episodes, certainly the best Brunt appearance, and remarkably doesn’t have a single Behr fingerprint on it.

5×2 “The Ship” (w/Pam Wiggington & Rick Cason)
The historic one hundredth episode of the series sees Beimler once again up the emotional ante by pitting a downed DS9 crew against Dominion antagonists, and let them struggle over the fate of one of the enemy’s own ships.

5×5 “Trials and Tribble-ations” – Ronald D. Moore, René Echevarria, Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler, & Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Beimler participates in what is essentially for him a sequel to “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”

5×10 “Rapture” (w/L.J. Strom)
One of my favorite Sisko episodes, another subtly cinematic experience that sees him pushed to the brink of the whole Prophets angle, stuck between his role as a Starfleet officer and Bajoran religious icon in the most ingenious way possible, making a decision that contradicts what he’s been doing for the past four years but foretells the experiences of the next three years. It’s easily the most important episode that isn’t a season premiere or finale, and as a result is probably easy to overlook, which is sort of like Beimler’s importance both to DS9 and Star Trek in general.

5×20 “Ferengi Love Songs” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
Well, this has to be a shock. Beimler and Behr’s next collaboration is a Ferengi episode.

5×24 “Empok Nor” (w/Bryan Fuller)
In his final solo credit, Beimler takes advantage by looking at several familiar elements of the series in an entirely unfamiliar way, featuring Garak in his most sinister appearance and the debut of another Cardassian station in the exact configuration of DS9 itself, a place where you don’t have to visit the Mirror Universe to see circumstances flipped on their head.

6×1 “A Time To Stand” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
6×5 “Favor the Bold” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
6×6 “Sacrifice of Angels” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
6×10 “The Magnificent Ferengi” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
6×14 “Far Beyond the Stars” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler (w/Mark Scott Zicree)
6×17 “Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
6×20 “His Way” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
6×23 “Profit and Lace” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
6×26 “Tears of the Prophets” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
7×1 “Image in the Sand” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
7×2 “Shadows and Symbols” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
7×8 “The Siege of AR-558” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
7×12 “The Emperor’s New Cloak” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
7×16 “Badda-Bing Badda-Bang” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
7×20 “The Changing Face of Evil” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
7×25/7×26 “What You Leave Behind” – Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
From there, it’s one Behr trap after another, integrated as a real driving force of the series, into all the major developments as the fans will recognize them, from the start of the sixth season war arc to the final episode, and a lot of fun in between. Over the course of twenty-seven episodes, Beimler ran the gamut of turn-to guy to the only guy Behr could trust to share exactly the same vision as himself. He was a true pro.

Projects after DS9: ‘Profiler,’ ‘Dresden Files,’ ‘The Middleman’